■RUSSIA
Retail sales rose 13.8%
Retail sales growth slowed last month as average wages rose at a slower pace. Sales climbed an annual 13.8 percent last month, compared with a revised 14.5 percent in May, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. That was less than the 14.5 percent median forecast of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Russia has entered its 10th consecutive year of economic growth, helping to boost wages and spending on food, clothes and other consumer goods. Average wages have increased sixfold since 2000. Wages increased an annual 11.7 percent last month, reaching 17,808 rubles (US$766.94), the Statistics Service said.
■AVIATION
SkyEurope to cut routes
Slovak low-cost airline SkyEurope plans to cut its routes this winter in the face of spiraling oil prices, the idnes.cz news Web site reported on Sunday, citing company officials. The airline is to cut flights from Prague to Sofia and Lisbon and from Slovakia’s Bratislava and Kosice to Irish and British destinations Dublin, Cork and Birmingham, the report said. The company, which flies to 41 European destinations, will also slash a planned route from the Czech capital to Larnaca, Cyprus. “We are canceling our longest flights that are understandably the most burdened by oil prices,” idnes.cz cited CEO Jason Bitter as saying. The company also plans to ground at least two from its 15 planes this winter, Bitter said. SkyEurope has been in the red since transporting its first passenger in 2002.
■ENERGY
Vopak obtains financing
Royal Vopak NV, the world’s largest oil and chemical storage company, said it got 745 million euros (US$1.2 billion) in financing for its Rotterdam liquefied natural gas terminal. Vopak got the financing from the European Investment Bank and a group of banks, the Rotterdam-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The company is building the 800 million euro terminal with Dutch gas distribution company Gasunie NV.
■AUTOMOBILES
Ssangyong to freeze facility
South Korea’s smallest automaker, Ssangyong Motor, will shut down its plant for almost three weeks this summer because of sluggish demand for its gas-guzzling SUVs, union officials said yesterday. The management and union at the Chinese-owned carmaker had agreed to the shutdown from July 31 through Aug. 17 at the plant in Pyeongtaek, union officials said. Workers will get 70 percent of their regular pay during the shutdown. The paint shop will be refurbished during this period. Ssangyong, owned by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (上海汽車工業), was the only automaker among the country’s five players to report a fall in vehicle sales last month, with sales plunging 67 percent from a year earlier.
■FASHION
Esprit deputy chair quits
Esprit Holdings Ltd, the Hong Kong-based worldwide retailer of its own-brand clothes, said John Poon (潘祖明) resigned as deputy chairman and chief financial officer on Sunday to “pursue other interests.” Paul Cheng (鄭明訓), a 71-year-old independent non-executive director, was to take over as deputy chairman immediately, Esprit said in a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday. Ernst-Peter Vogel, senior vice president for finance in Europe at the firm, was named deputy chief financial officer.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
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